Shadow Cipher

8. Nova

I wake up on a new ship, in a new room. I look around and next to the bed is a picture of Kevin and Cygnus after one of the first races Cygnus won. They had gotten together not too long before that, and have been together ever since. I need to ask Kev how Cyg is doing. I sit up and note that Kevin left his jacket over me. I put it on and walk into the hall, following the lights to the command room.

As soon as I get to the command room, I see Kevin ordering people around. I clear my throat, Kevin looks at me and he smiles. "Hey Kev. Thanks for getting me so quickly. I owe you."

"Nonsense lil one," Kevin says, using the nickname he's had for me for far too long. "I couldn't let my baby's baby sister get taken by a Red Shadow, could I?"

I chuckle to ease some of the pressure that had been building in my chest. "How is Cygnus doing?"

"He's freaking out. He's contacted the authorities, he contacted your job, he even contacted your ex hoping to find you." Kevin wraps an arm around my shoulder. "Don't worry, he has no idea about the bounty on your head."

I look up at him, "Bounty? What bounty?"

"The bounty I plan to turn you in for, duh." Kevin says with an evil smirk washing across his face. He uses the hold he has on me to pull my arms behind my back and cuffs them together. s**t!

"What?! Kevin! Why?!" I'm so shocked, I don't even think to stop him. He drags me to another room. It's clear of everything except for a hook that is hanging from the ceiling. This doesn't look good for me.

"Money, of course," he says, as if it is the most obvious answer. He hooks the cuffs to the hanging hook, forcing me to stand on my tip toes. "It's going to go like this. Levon wants the information you have on Governor Bolton. So where's the data drive?"

"Like I would tell you!" I spit at him.

Then he does something I never thought he would do, he hits me. He backhands me across the face. It continues like this, him going from backhanding me, kicking me, punching me. At one point, he kicks my feet out from under me and my shoulder pops out of its socket because I fall and the hook doesn't give. Eventually, I pass out.

I wake up in a holding cell, still cuffed, my shoulder still out of socket. Red Shadow is crouched in front of me, calling my name. "I'm awake," I groan.

Red Shadow sighs in relief. "Thank gods. You've been out for hours. What happened? I thought Kevin was your friend?"

"So did I," I mumble. Then I stand up, lean my shoulder against the wall and shove forwards, popping it back into place. f**k! That hurt. "He's my brother's boyfriend. I've known him since I was sixteen. He's always been there for me, but apparently the bounty on my head is too good. He did all this," I make a gesture with my head to how banged up my body is, "because he wants the info I got on Bolton."

Red Shadow nods and looks at me, worriedly. "Are you okay?"

I nod, then shake my head, then shrug, then wince because my shoulder hurts still. "I will be. Look, I have some lock picks in my boot, can you reach down, slide my heel, to the side and grab the tools inside? If you don't know how to do it, I can do it."

"I've picked my fair share of locks. I can do it," he says as he leans down and starts messing with my boot. He gets the tools out and then is able to pick the lock on his cuffs.

"Now do me," I say.

He looks me up and down and literally shakes his head. Once my cuffs are off, I take stock of how my body is feeling. I think I have 2 broken ribs, my shoulder is extremely sore and my face is definitely bruised. I don't think he broke the skin on my cheek, but I suppose we will find out once we get out of here.

The locks of the cell are electronic, so there must be some sort of panel with wires behind it. I start to search the walls, then realize Red Shadow is talking to me. "-ooking pretty rough. Are you sure you're okay? Perhaps you should sit down. What are you looking for anyways?"

I wave his concerns off. "I'm fine. I will be at least. We just gotta get out of this mess. I'm looking for a wall panel that should pop out. Behind it are wires that I should be able to short circuit to unlock the cell."

I can feel him watching me closely as I run my hands along the wall. When I finally find the indentations in the wall that tell me this is the panel I'm looking for, I start to get woozy. I must tilt because, all of a sudden, Red Shadow is holding me up. I strangely find his arms around me comforting. I literally shove that comfort away to focus on the task at hand. Red Shadow stays right next to me, a hand on my waist, steadying me as I work.

As soon as I get the wires to spark, the cell slides open. "This way. I've been on this ship before. There's a maintenance hatch right up here in the ceiling." I attempt to jump up into the hatch, but my broken ribs are making things more difficult than I thought they would. "Can you give me a boost? I must be more injured than I thought..." I say to Red Shadow.

"Of course. Here you go," he says as he holds his hands out so that I can use them as a step. When my foot is in his hands, he boosts me up so that I can maneuver myself into the hatch. It's definitely more difficult than I thought it would be.